Loser Laps

Past the bend on Herring Creek
Underneath the evergreen
Where the neighborhood kids would meet

Borrowed bikes and torn-up jeans
Racing through the endless weeks
Every summer till seventeen

Between Main Street and the beach
Between green and golden leaves
Doing loser laps before we learned to drink

Home just after ten
So my mom could get to bed
She always found a way to worry ‘bout me
Even on a quiet dead-end street

Local bar in college tees
Big Ten and Ivy League
Bought a couple of drinks with an out-of-state ID

Coming home is bittersweet
Never thought we all would be
Kids again at twenty-three

Between day jobs and daydreams
Same old friends and same routines
Doing loser laps just to blow off steam

Saw a couple friends get married
Some get drunk and miss the ferry
Have to crash with me on this side of the sea
In the house on the dead-end street